Category Archive

Kaila Kea is a career coach based in coastal Virginia. I met Kaila through a mutual business friend (Hi, Shelley Smith!). I wanted to bring Kaila to the newsletter because she has the candidate’s perspective on our current recruiting challenges. As a career coach, Kaila works with the very people you are trying to recruit. I find her Millennial’s perspective really interesting to us employers as we struggle to fill our job openings in this tight labor market. Here’s the advice Kaila has for us. If you’re like the vast majority of employers, you may be wondering how to improve …

Communication is an important element in your employee retention plan. When done well, employee communication creates important touchpoints to keep workers engaged and feeling part of something greater than their job. Corporate communication was traditionally one-sided: the employer was pushing a message but didn’t know how it was received. Communicating with hourly employees has always been particularly challenging. In industries with a distributed workforce (e.g. retail, hospitality, home health), the challenge is heightened. Workers are not under one roof or on the same schedule. In some cases, hourly workers may not even have a corporate e-mail. Format and content are …

The Future of Work is top of mind for business leaders. They are trying to prepare for a future that is increasingly hard to predict. Rapid changes in technology require different skills. At the same time, we have significant changes in workforce demographics. It is becoming apparent that the definition of work itself needs to change. Evolving work means evolving HR. Becoming data savvy is important for HR professionals to gain credibility with corporate leaders. Why is HR data important? Data helps understand our performance. And HR needs must be the expert in its the people data. HR needs to …

Did you know that a well-intentioned holiday bonus can turn onto a wage compliance headache? The holidays are time to give hard-working employees a bonus. Monetary bonuses are a great way to express appreciation for contributions made by employees. Bonuses can boost employee morale and productivity. However, employers need to consider the implication of bonuses on the overtime rate and ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This is especially relevant to employers who award holiday bonuses to their non-exempt employees. Unless a bonus meets the definition of a “discretionary” bonus, bonuses should be considered non-discretionary. As such, …

Over the summer, I rented a workspace in a CPA office. I was struck by the number of conversations among co-workers relative to the care of aging parents. Increasingly, family caregivers are not only taking care of children, they are also taking care of aging relatives. The numbers are striking. One in four workers are family caregivers. According to AARP, 42% of workers have provided care for an aging relative or friend in the past five years. About half of the workforce expects to be providing eldercare in the next five years. This means that most workplaces have employees who …

Today, I am delighted to open my column to Mike Dugan. Mike is a fellow consultant who operates out of my region of coastal Virginia. He describes himself as an outsourced VP of Sales for small to medium size business with $ 1M to $ 25M in revenue. Thanks to 25 years of sales experience, Mike works with clients and builds their path to sales revenue growth. He also provides oversight of sales team. Mike is a veteran of the Navy where he served for 8 years. Here’s Mike’s take on a common question of management and leadership: Should we …

I met Dr. Gary Namie Founder and President of the Workplace Bullying Institute at an Employment Law conference in 2013. I have to confess this was my first exposure to the concept of bullying at work. I knew of bullying in school. And like most managers I did not think bullying occurred in the workplace or that bullying was a significant problem. This was until I heard the confession of a fellow HR professional who shared her experience of being bullied at work. This was an eye-opener but I wasn’t convinced it was a pervasive problem until last year. Workplace …

Millennial employees, those born between 1980 and 2000, have a bad reputation when it comes to loyalty to their employer. They have been called the “Job Hopping” generation. At any given time, 60% of millennials are open to a new job and 21% have changed jobs within the past year (Gallup 2016). Millennial turnover is estimated to cost $30.5 billion annually. You might have experienced it first hand in your organization. However, employee turnover isn’t something you have to accept. Let’s examine the misconceptions surrounding employee turnover and what can be done minimize with an emphasis on millennials. Myth 1: …

The topic of leadership has always interested me. Since the early days of my career at Procter & Gamble, I have been struck by how many managers lack leadership skills. Despite substantial training efforts, a multi-billion leadership development industry, and more than 70 years of research, organizations are struggling to grow leadership skills. Few organizations have enough talented leaders in place to ensure succession. So what can we do to develop our leadership skills and the leadership skills of our organizations? Based on my background, I have a bias for experience. My most challenging assignments gave me the confidence that …